Rocker-ring structure for railway motors



Sept. 15, 1931. P. BOLL|NGER 1,823,313

ROCKER RING STRUCTURE FOR RAILWAY MOTORS Filed Jan. 20, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet l mvzmon Pa z/Z Boilinger.

ATTORNEY P 15, 1931- P. BOLLINGER I ROdKER RING STRUCTURE FOR RAI WAY MOTURS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan. 20, 1950 Fig. '7.

Paul Boilinger. W

J/ ATTORNEY Patented Sept. 15, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PAUL BOLLLNGER, OE WILKINSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIG-NOR IQ WESTINGHOUSE EIECTRIC & MANUFACTURING COMPANY, A COBPORATIGN OF PENNSYLVANIA ROCKER-RING STRUCTURE FOR RAILWAY MOTORS Application filed January 20, 1930. Serial No. 421,929.

My invention relates to improvements in the rocker-ring structure for supporting the brushholders of railway motors of the commutator type and it has particular relation to multipole single-phase commutator railway motors having a large number of brushes spaced closely about the commutator and having only a single restricted opening in the motor frame through which access must be had to all of the brushholders iorinspection and maintenance, said access being provided by mounting the brushholders on a rocker-ring which, when the terminal leads have been disconnected, may be rotated so as 1 to bring any desired brushholder opposite the opening in the frame. 1

In such motors, the brush must be very accurately positioned with respect to the neutral commutator zones of the motor, which creates quite a problem in assembly, particularly when castings have been utilized, as

heretofore. Said castings have involved a very large amount of extremely accurate machinin-g, much of which had to be done in 25 very awkward places at a ve great expense,

which has been made worse hy the fact that such castings inevitably have blow holes which frequently are not discovered until nearly all of the machining operations have been completed, resulting in an extremely large loss on account of scrapped finished parts.

According to my invention, I have provided a novel fabricated rocker-ring'assembly admirably adapted for quantity production at very small cost, and characterized principally by having brushholder-blocks or supporting members which are held between two separate rocker-ring members'and which may be assembled very accurately in a jig, and may be secured in such accurate assembled position by means of holes which are drilled through the rings and blocks in the jig. said holes being then reamed and fitted with tapered bolts, while the parts are still in the jig, thus eliminating fragile castings,

expensive welding and unnecessary weight,

and thus cfl'ectingthe necessary accurate assembly,by means which are no more costly than the boring of holes in parts which are held in a jig.

Further obiects of my invention consist in the utilization of a pair of separately machined brushholder-brachets, involving very simple machining operations, secured to each of the above-mentioned brushholderblocks, each bracket supporting one brushholder; as well as improved means for clamping the rocker ring in its very accurately adjusted operative position which it must have when the motor is in operation, and, at the same time, retaining the commutator cover, which closes the opening in the frame, in such manner that the cover may be secured in position only when the rocker-ring is in its proper adjusted position; and also improved gear means for rotating the rockerring, and brass-to-iron bearing means for so supporting the rotatable rocker-ring assembly as to prevent the rusting together of the parts in a fixed non-rotatable position.

With the foregoing and other objects in View, my invention consists in the combinations of parts and methods of construction and assembly hereinafter described and claimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is an elevational view, reduced to about of the actual size, showing the brushholder assembly of one motor of a twinmotor unit embodying my invention, the housing or end-bracket being removed, and the outline of the frame being indicated in dot-and-dash lines,

Fig. 2 is an elevational View, reduced to about /21 0f the actual size, showing the entire twin-motor unit with commutator-end housings and commutator covers in place,

Fig. 3 is a section through the rockerring and block assembly, reduced to about of its actual size, the section-plane being indicated by the line III- ll in Figs. 1 and 4,

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan View of the brushholder block shown in Fig. 3, before being assembled, V

Fig. 5 is an end view of the same, with a part broken away,

Fig. 6 1s a section through rockers-ing p1nsize, the section-plane being ion, reduced to about of its actual size, the section-plane being indicated by the line 'VI-VI in Fig. 2,

Fig. 7 is a sectionthrough the rocker-ring clamping device and commutator-cover re taining bolt, reduced to about of actual indicated by the line VIIVII in Figs. 2 and 8,

Fig. 8 is asectional View of the apparatus shown in Fig. 7 thesection-plane being in dicated by the line VIIIVIII in Fig. 7, and

Fig. 9is a detail view of the shoulder member for engaging the clamp shown inFigs. 7 and 8. T

The scales hereinabove indicated refer to the original 8" X 13" drawing, which will be still further reduced to 4 of the original size when the printed edition of the drawings is produced for attaching to the printed patent. v V

As shown in the drawings, my invention is applied to a twin-motor unit 11 consisting 'of two 12-pole single-phase commutator motors 12 and 13 joined together in a single frame having a semi-cylindrical cradle member 15 which is adapted to fit over one ofthe axles of a locomotive, the driving connection between the twomotors and the driving-wheel axle being effected by means of pinions mounted on the motor shaft at the end remote from the commutator, and engaging a gear on the driving wheel, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2.

The commutator cylinder 21, indicated in broken linesin Fig. 1, is engaged by twelve sets of carbon brushes 22 which are suptightly into one of 7 block 25, these projecting ends 35 of the are milled to provide fiatsides 36 and 37;.as

indicated. Each brushholder-block 25 is also ported by as many brushholders 23 which, in turn, are supported from separate brushholder-brackets 24 which are supported, in pairs, from six brushholder-blocks 25 which constitute an important part of my invention. The six brushholder-blocks 25 are supported between two rocker-rings 26 and 27 which are machined fromweldless rolled-steel rings.

. As shown inFigs. 3, 4 and 5, each of the brushholder-bloclrs 25 is burned out of'a slab of rolled steel, "as indicated by the lines marked with the numeral 28 in Fig. 4, to provide a li ht-wei ht structure which however may also be drop forged, having four portions 29 which are drilled to provide four holes 30 for receiving four supporting pins 31. The pins31 are pressed into an insulating tube 32 which is capped, atone end, by a protective steel tube 33 which is pressed the holes 30 of the brush-' holder-block 25. The free end of the pin 31.; with projects out of the hole 30, is provided with a porcelain insulator 34 which covers all but a short projecting end of the join, as indicated by the numeral 35. Afterthe pins 31 have been assembledin the holes 30 of the pins provided with four supporting lugs 39 having machined surfaces 40 which are parallel with the axes of the bores 30 in the block.

' Six of the blocks 25, after being prepared as just described, are then placed in a suitindicated in Fig. 3, the holes being then reamed and fitted with tapered bolts 42 which are pressed into place while the parts are still held in the assemblingjig. It'will be noted that the requirements for accuracy are so great that tapered bolts 42 must be utilized, in order to prevent the possibility of any looseness whatsoever between the parts, and it will be further noted that this very great accuracy of assembly is obtained by the simplest possible machining opera.- tions. The tapered bolts 42 are fitted with nuts 43 which are secured by light welding 44 when properly drawn up in place. i

V WVith the parts thus assembled," it will be apparent that the insulated pins 31, with their flat sides 36'and 37, provide means, as shown in Fig. l, for accurately supporting the brushholder brackets 24 which are pro vided with accurately machined slots 47 for :1

tightly fitting over the flat sides 36 and 37 of thepins 31, said bracketsbeing held in place against the blocks 25 by means of bolts 48, as shown in Fig. 1. It will be noted that each of these brackets 24 is provided with a previously machined lateral surface 49, which makes a certain predetermined angle with the top surface 50 of the bracket. This lat, eral surface 49 is accurately bored toreceive a tap bolt 51 which extends through the brushholder 23,

supporting flange of the thereby accurately supporting the brushholder in position.

As shown in Figs. 1,7 and 8, two insulated cross-connecting rings 53 and 54 are provided and suitably secured to the respective rocker-rings 26 and 27. Eachcross-connec ing ring is commo-nlymade in two halves( not shown in detail) which are joined together after the ring is put in place around the brushholder-ring assembly. Each of the cross-connecting rings 53 and 54 carries six equally spaced insulated connectors or arms; 53' and 54", respectively, which extends down and connect toalternate brushholders 23, as shown in Fig. 1, so that each of the cross-1 connectingrings 53 and 54 becomes'aterminal for six'of the .brushholders 23.; Y 3' I are drilled directly through the rings 26, 27 a and the supporting lugs 39 of the blocks, as

The armature leads for the motor are cated at 56 in Fig. 1, and are carried around 53 and 54, by means of approximately semicircular connectors 57 secured in a nonrotatable manner to the stator frame of the motor and bolted to the respective cross-connector rings at a point 58 which is accessible through the opening 59, in the bottom of the frame, through which access is had to the brushholders, as shown in Fig. 1. This arrangment is made so that the bolted connection 58 between the semi-circular terminal connectors 57 and the cross-connecting rings 53 and 54, respectively, may be disconnected by reaching through the opening 59 in the frame, after which the rocker-ring assembly may be rotated, as will subsequently be described, to provide access to any one of the brushholders.

The rotatable mounting of the rocker-ring assembly is best shown in Figs. 6 and 7, from which it will be understood that the commutator-end of the stator frame of each motor is-provided with two spaced steel rings 60 and 61, which are welded to the sheet-steel barrel 62 of the frame. The inner ring 61 has a larger inner diameter than the outer ring 60 and is provided with a bronze liningring 63 which is expanded into a tight fit with the steel ring 61. After these parts are assembled, thetwo rings 60 and 63 are bored out to the same diameter, in a single boring operation, an annular shoulder or abutment 64 being left on the bronze ring 63, as indicated in Figures 6 and 7. This boring operation provides the bearing seat in the stator frame for receiving the brushholder rockerrinjg assembly. 8

'.he brushholder rocker-ring assembly is prepared for mounting in the bearing seat just described, by assembling the rocker-ring parts already mentioned, and adding an internal-tooth gear 66 (Fig. 6) which is made of bronze and which is secured to the outer rockenring 26 by means of-machine screws 67, as shown in Fig. 6. After the machine screws have been tightened in place, they are secured by peening some of the bronze surface-material of the gear 66 into the slots of the screws, after which the lateral face 68 of the gear 66 is machined to provide an accurate predetermined over-all width of the rockerring assembly. At this time, also, the outer peripheries of the rocker-rings 26 and 27, and of the gear 66, are all turned to an accurate diameter which is some eight or ten tliousandths of an inch less than the diameter of the bearing surface bored in the stator rings 60 and 63, so as'to provide a snug sliding fit of four or five mils clearance all around the rocker-ring assembly.

' It will be noted, from Fig. 6 and the foregoing desoription, that at no place is there a steeLto-steel fit of the rotatable rocker-ring assembly in its bearing provided in the stator member. The outer stator ring 60, which is made of steel, engages the bronze gear 66, while the inner bronze cradle-ring 63 of the stator member engages the inner steel rockerring 27 of the rocker-ring assembly. This steel-to-bronze bearing assembly is important in preventing the rotating and stationary parts from rusting together, as would be .experienced with a steel-to-steel fit of the parts.

The internal-tooth gear 66 is rotated by means of a pinion 70, which is carried by the removable commutator-end housing or bracket 71 and is equipped with a square shaft-end 7 2 to receive a suitable wrench (not shown) for turning the pinion and gear.

The entire rocker-ring assembly, after being placed in the stator member, as above described, is very accurately adjusted to its proper angular position, in the factory, and is then locked in said accurately adjusted position by my novel clamping device shown in Figs. 7, 8 and 9. To this end, a shoulder member 74 is prepared, as shown in Fig. 9, having two enlarged abutments 7 5 and 76 joined by an integral connecting portion 7 7 of reduced width and thickness.

A shoulder member 74 is bolted to the inner face of each of the rocker-rings 26 and 27, as shown in Figs. 7 and 8, in axial alinement with each other, and they are engaged by a clamp 80 (best shown in Fig. 7), having oppositely directed wing members 81 and 82, which are machined to have a close interlockmg fit with the notches provided between the thickened shoulders and 76 of the shoulder 7 members 74; and having a radially extending :stud 84 which is welded to the clamp and is adapted to extend down through a perforation 85 in the piece of sheet metal which serves-as a commutator cover 86 extending over the opening 59 in the stator frame through which access is had to the brushholders and to the rocker-ring assembly. It will be understood that the clamp 80 is readily inserted in place by first turning it slightly i sideways, after which its wing members 81 and 82 are straightened out and pulled back down into the grooves between the thickened shoulder members 75 and ieces'7 l.

The thin sheet-metal commutator cover 86 is provided with a large perforation 85 for making a very loose fit with the downwardly projecting stud 84 of the clamp 80. An accurate'fit is then provided by means of a thick steel bar 87 that has been previously prepared with a central opening 88 just the size of the stud 84; and this bar is next set in place over the stud and against the sheet-metal commutator cover-plate 86, so that the bar 87 extends across the opening 59 in the. stator frame, as shown in Fig. 7. Then, while the rocker-ring assembly is still held, at the factory, in its accurately-adjusted angular position, the cross-bar 87 of the comnmtator-cover 76 of the shoulder 86 is welded to the cover 86, as indicated at89 in Fig. 8. Registering holes are then drilled in the bar 87 and in the frame 62, respectively, as indicated at 90, 91 and 92, 9.3 in Fig.7, using a suitable template (not shown) to assist in the operation, and the holes at each end of the bar are provided with pins 94 which are adapted, thereafter, to ensure the accurate angular positioning of the rocker-ring as sembly before the cover-member 86 can be assembled in place, so that it will be impossible to apply a nut 95 to the end of the clampstud 84 to close up the motor for operation unless the rocker-ring assembly is in its proper position.

As an aid to bringing the rocker-ring to its proper position, before attempting to assemble the clamp and commutator-cover 86, the stator frame may be provided with a small index piece which. is welded to the inner side ofthe outer ring 60 of the frame, as indicated at 96in Figs. 7 and 8. This index piece 96 is provided with a triangular notch 97 which is opposite a similar notch 98 on the-outer rocker-ring 26 of the rocker-ring assembly, as indicated in Fi 7 when the parts are in their proper operative positions.

While I-have described and illustrated my invention in a preferred form of embodiment, it will be obvious that such description and illustration are merely illustrative, and that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention or' losing its essentialbenefits. I desire, therefore, that the appended claims shall be accorded the broadest construction or interpretation consistent with their language, when read in the light of the prior art. For

example, the stator frame barrel 62 and the stator-rings 60 and 61, instead of being welded together, may be integral parts of a single barrel having the rings rolled as one part thereof from a single solid piece of steel, and I wish my claims to be understood as embracing this construction, whenever the stator rings are mentioned.

' I claim as my invention:

1. A brushholder rocker-ring assembly characterized by having two rocker-rings and a plurality of separate, equally spaced brushholder-sup'porting blocks, positioning means for independently securing each block in direct contact with said rings in accurate radialand circumferentially spaced position, and

brushholders insulatedly carried by said blocks.

QJThe invention, as set forth in claim 1,

' characterized by having a plurality of insulated supporting spins ineach block and means for supporting the brushholders from the pins.

' j The invention, as set forth in'claim 1', characterized by having two pairs of insulated supportingpins in each block, two op positely irected brushholder-brackets carmoving said stator rings,

ried bysaid two pairs of pins, respectively, and a brushholder carried by each bracket.

4. In combination, a' stator-frame of a dynamo-electric machine of the commutator type, said stator-frame having, at its commutator end, a barrel-like member, two spaced rings within the barrel of the stator-frame, the portion of said barrel between said-rings being provided with an opening through which access may be had to the brushholders, a commutator-cover for said opening a removable commutator-end housing for closing the end of said stator-frame, and a brushholder rocker ring assembly characterized by having two rocker-rings, a plurality of separate, equally spaced-brushholder-supporting blocks, said rings and blocks having accurately alined holes and tapered bolts making a tight metal-to1netal fit in said holes for in dependently securing said blocks to said rings in accurate radially and circumferentially spaced positions, a plurality of brushholders insulatedly supported from said-blocks, and means for rotatabiy supporting said rocker ring assembly within said stator-frame rings.

5. The invention, as specified in claim 4, characterized by'the fact that said rotatable supporting means comprise slidably contacting concentric rings of dissimilar metals.

6. In combination, a stator-frame of a dynamo-electric machine of the commutator type,,saidstator-frame having, at its commutator end, a barrel-like member two spaced rings within the barrel of'the stator-frame,

the portion of said barrel between said rings being provided with an opening through which access may be had to the brushholders, a commutator-cover for said opening, a removable commutator-end housing for closing the end of said holder rocker-ring assembly characterized by having two-rockera'ings journaled in said stator-frame rings and carrying a gear attached to one of the rocker rings, said rockerring assembly being removable from the commutator end of said stator-frame without remeans carried by the stator frame for engaging said'gear to rotate said rocker-ring assembly, and means for locking said 'rockerring assembly in only one predetermined,rotatably adjusted position in said stator frame. 7 7

7 The invention, as specified in claim 6,

characterized by the fact that said locking" to be engaged by said wings when the, rockerstator-frame, and a brush-,

inner faceof eachrocker-ring ring assembly is to be clamped in its predetermined position, said commutator-cover having a hole for receiving said stud and having means for so positioning it on the frame that it can be applied in only one position, and a nut on the endof the stud for holding the parts in position.

9. The invention, as specified in claim 6, characterized by the fact that the gear is an internal-toothed gear, and the means for rotating the same is a pinion carried by the commutator-end housing.

10. The invention, as specified in claim 6, characterized by the fact that journal bearings between the rocker-ring assembly and the stator-rings comprise dissimilar contacting metals,

n testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this 11th day of January,

PAUL BOLLINGER. 

